Oudtshoorn Mr Fix-it has his work cut out

18 August 2015 - 02:11 By Khulekani Magubane

Oudtshoorn municipality's new administrator, Kamalasan Chetty, faces a tall order to turn around the troubled entity. In the next six months Chetty is expected to conduct five reviews and oversee management reforms at the municipality, which has been battered by a power struggle.This comes as the Constitutional Court delivers judgment today on whether the Western Cape High Court was correct in finding last year that a Local Government: Municipal Structures Act provision was unconstitutional.The provision grants the speaker of a municipal council a deciding vote, in addition to his or her vote as a councillor, where there is an equal number of votes for and against a motion.Last year, Oudtshoorn voted on its 2014-15 budget, which resulted in a deadlock as there were an equal number of votes for and against the budget.The national and provincial departments of co-operative governance have begun an intervention in Oudtshoorn, following service provision collapses and a power impasse that saw the council failing to pass its budget this year.Chetty is expected to review all acting appointments, the council's work-flow organogram, temporary hires, officials' qualifications, as well as disciplinary and misconduct cases. Municipal spokesman Ntobeko Mangqwengqwe said Mr Chetty would be in charge until early next year.ANC Western Cape secretary Faiez Jacobs said: "The ANC supports the adopted package of aid and is happy with the competency of the interim administrator.... It is great to see the ANC initiative coming to fruition."Western Cape local government MEC Anton Bredell's spokesman, Graham Paulse, said Chetty was instructed to gather information on irregularities in hiring officials and to screen academic qualifications...

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